Interpersonal Coflict in Film Essay

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Interpersonal Conflict in Film
COM200: Interpersonal Communication

I chose to write about the movie American Beauty, A 1999 drama film by Cohen B. (Producer), & Mendes S. (Director), DreamWorks: Los Angeles. American Beauty has some very thought-provoking interpersonal conflicts throughout the movie. But one of the interpersonal conflicts that I believe was not handled effectively is the interpersonal conflict between Ricky and his father ‘Frank’. Frank is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel whom subjects his son Ricky to a strict disciplinarian military lifestyle.
Ricky does not approve of this life style, but goes along with it to friction with his father. The Frank does not understand nor does he respect Ricky as his son due to lack of interpersonal communication and too high expectations on his part. Ricky was forced into a military academy and a mental hospital where he spent time recording or videotaping things that he believed to be art.
Once he returned home he was a marijuana user and drug dealer and his father was under the impression that he was making his money by working catering jobs. Ricky started to bond with Lester, the father of his soon to be girlfriend, by supplying him marijuana. Frank notices the interaction between Lester and Ricky and becomes suspicious of their friendship. While snooping in Ricky’s bedroom, Frank finds his son's videotape of Lester lifting weights while undressed, which Ricky captured by chance. That night, after watching Ricky and Lester through Lester's garage window, Frank mistakenly concludes that they were sexually involved. He later beat Ricky and accuses him of being a homosexual. There was no homosexual feelings between Ricky and Lester, Lester was going through a mid-life crisis and Ricky was doing what he normally do, which was to sell drugs.
For whatever reason, the incident stirred up some repressed unresolved homosexual desires for Frank, because he approached Lester and attempted to...